Team Liquid defeat G2 to win ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals

Team Liquid emerged victorious against G2 esports to take home the ESL Pro League Season 9 trophy, cementing their place as the best team in the world right now.

G2 secured an early 7-1 lead on the match’s first map, Dust2, and it seemed like the French side were going to ride this momentum to a quick 1-0 lead. However, Team Liquid had other ideas.

Having awoken from their slumber, Stewie2k and ELiGE put together some incredible individual plays to bring their team back into contention. It wasn’t long before the North American side had completely turned the tables on G2, and with a 14-9 scoreline in their favour, it looked like they’d secured the first map comfortably - G2’s kennyS wasn’t about to give up, though.

G2’s superstar AWPer turned back the clock and delivered a vintage performance to bring the scoreline back to 15-15 and force overtime. Despite G2’s best efforts though, Team Liquid promptly dashed their hopes and took the map 19-15.

G2 were completely outclassed on the next map, Overpass, and lost out 16-3 to an indomitable Team Liquid who were clearly in a hurry.

Nuke was G2’s last chance to secure a foothold in the match and they certainly stepped up to the challenge. Despite a shaky first half on T-side, G2’s defense was seemingly impenetrable on the CT-side and they closed off the map with a solid 16-12 win.

The final map Inferno was chaotic, thrilling and desperately close. G2 and Team Liquid were back and forth the whole way, with some incredible clutches and holds bringing the scoreline to a tense overtime decider.

Team Liquid proved too strong for G2 in the deciding rounds, and secured both the map and the ESL finals trophy with a 25-22 scoreline.

With this victory, Team Liquid walk away with $250,000 in prize money and status as the team to beat. They’re also one step away from winning the Intel Grand Slam, which gives the first team to win four out of 10 ESL, DreamHack or IEM tournaments.

Although G2 lost out this time, it’s nice to see them back to winning ways. They struggled throughout 2018, but it seems like this reworked roster has the potential to go very far indeed.